Easter Day in Ukraine. Traditional symbols and present-day celebration

It is remarkable that even this truly religious day has combined both Christian values and ancient pagan beliefs in Ukrainian culture.

Easter Day in Ukraine

Ukrainian festive Easter celebration is one of the most important religious holidays of the year. People call it Velykden, Great Day! It is celebrated during two days on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday is the time to return to work with stories about a joyful feast, visits to relatives and Easter basket photos on Instagram.

Yasinia village

1920. Yasinia village. Carpathian region of Ukraine. Easter Day celebration.

Everyone has got warm family memories on Easter Sunday and they teach the young generation to keep them.

Healthy eating worldwide trend together with the religious factor make people follow the 6 weeks’ Lent before Eater day. During this period, Christians refuse from eating animal products, such as meat, eggs and diary. This way, they clean up their mind and body filling them with light emotions and the positive life energy.

Starting from Sunday midnight, people attend the church service to pray, to listen to the sound of bells and for sure to have the Easter basket blessed. A candle lighted at the beginning of the ceremony is to be carried the whole way home and not to be quenched.

Girl in the church Celebrating in Church

Easter holiday in Ukraine has a long preparation time

Good Thursday or “Chystyi Chetver” is a day dedicated to Christ’s passion. Ukrainians finish all preparations and tiding up the house. In some regions of Ukraine people wake up at 4 a.m. and take a bath with blessed willow branches they keep from Willow (Palm) Sunday. This holiday celebrates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and marks the beginning of the week before Easter. The reason for that is that water is believed to possess the holy energy and is beneficial for health.

Willow branches

Next day is Good Friday, the solemn time that commemorates the day our Lord was crucified. This day is observed as a strict fast, so no meat or dairy products are consumed. No manual labor is allowed.

Krashanka (a hardboiled egg to be eaten during the feast) and Pysanka (a raw egg) are the two kinds of Ukrainian Easter eggs that women create only on Good Thursday.

easter eggs

Pysanka is covered with beeswax and the egg is then dipped into dye. The dye colors the egg where it is bare but leaves it white where wax protects it. The process is then repeated as many times as desired (from the lightest tone to the darkest) to create an intricate, many-layered pattern.

Krashanka egg is dyed in the onion husk brew to get the brown color
Green one is obtained by boiling it in the spinach and nettle brew
For the yellow color, you can add the turmeric spice
And for purple one cook eggs together with viola flowers

colored Easter Eggs

The process of making eggs

There is also a game kids especially love playing on Sunday morning. It is called the “egg battle” when two people rap their eggs together, and if someone’s eggshell breaks, that person is out of the game (or has to give the egg up, or eat it, depending on a family tradition). The shells after are not thrown away, they are given to the poultry instead or just put to the river or stream.

Egg battle Egg battle2

Pysanka was made late at night. The process was accompanied by praying, filling each pattern with the positive energy and meaning. They are believed to protect from evil, misfortune, to be a talisman and to heal from illnesses. So the strict sign order has got a kind of a magic ritual during its creation. One of the main Pysanka symbols are:

The infinity sign, Bezkonechnyk. Every pysanka has to get this sign for luck and harmony. The Easter egg without it can bring misfortune
The spiral symbol is often seen at the Tripoli culture ceramics. It is a sign of fertility, the sun and running time
The circle is the third most common sign symbol in a Ukrainian Easter egg. It is a sign of perfection, immortality image that appears in nature with repeated revivals of life

Ukrainian pysanka has got plenty of signs to read varying in the regions of its creation. An Easter egg is a perfect gift to show your appreciation and good wishes.

Easter eggs

Delicious Easter symbol. Paska - traditional Ukrainian baked bread

It is the symbol of the Kingdom of heaven and Resurrection, the bread of eternal life. It is decorated with crosses, wreathes and spring birds made of dough. That is the main feature in which the Ukrainian Easter bread Paska differs from the Russian one. That bread is adorned with whipped egg whites and colored millet.

Paskas

Traditional Ukrainian baked bread

What to put to the Easter food basket?

As far as you see, pysanky, krashanky, and Paska are the main basket meals. Here comes some others implying their own meaning.

Cheese and butter as the symbols of God’s kindness and tenderness
Sausage (kovbasa) and ham stand for inner joy and happiness
Horse-radish makes health and spirit stronger
Salt is associated with wealth. The Holy Bible says that salt is a symbolic bond between God and people

Easter food basket

Rushnyk, the Ukrainian embroidered towel, is not just a decoration for the Easter basket. It has to be made exclusively of natural materials like cotton or linen. The embroidery technique used is cross stitch embroidery only.

The phrase “Christ is risen” – “Khrystos Voskres”, the embroidered Paska (Earth fertility) , Easter eggs (meaning eternal life) and candles (positive holy energy) are the vital rushnyk elements.

Rushnyk and Easter basket

On Sunday morning with the first sun rays all family gathers at the festive table enjoying delicious Easter meals. During two days people visit relatives and friends sharing happiness, positive emotions and playing folk Easter games.

However, nowadays Ukrainians have become more open to other cultures decorating their homes with nests, lambs and rabbits or hares.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!

Used sourсes:

http://ko.net.ua/

http://ukrainianpeople.us/

http://bilingualkidsrock.com/ukrainian-easter-traditions/

March 7, 2018 | View: 3592 | Categories: Culture